Is there any good tactic for the hard/extreme sudokus without using the pencil function everywhere?

I have been playing sudokus for about a month now and I have been constantly improving, but I feel like I am hitting a wall now.

My best time for hard is 3:34, but when I accidently started an easy game, thinking it was a hard one, I got the time 3:25.

I know that times under 3 minutes are possible and achievable, but the time I needed to solve an easy puzzle with my current tactic for hard puzzles made me realizee that it might take too long to always add pencil marks for every number.

Knubble

edit: I am using Digit first already, aswell as auto erase pencil

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 13 Jan 2016 20:27:17

It's hard to say without knowing what you do now. I cycle through 1-9 at least twice with no pencil marks, then depending on how hard the rest of the puzzle looks, decide whether to mark it up or not. You often don't even have to make marks, then you're pretty much guaranteed a sub 3-minute puzzle.

You've only been playing a month and already your times are pretty good. Give it a few years?